By Phoenix Beck Mcgreevy & Andrzej Celinski, 

Safer supply saves lives. It’s that simple. People who use and sell drugs have long known this, and academic research is catching up too—demonstrating that safer supply reduces mortality rates and improves quality of life.

As people who use drugs (PWUD), we denounce the unfounded critiques of safer supply by addiction medicine physicians like Vincent Lam, medical director of Coderix Medical Clinic in Toronto. 

 are the ones navigating the illicit drug supply daily. We are the experts. Arguments against safer supply are consistently inaccurate, pro-profit and rooted in fear and hate-based ideology.

Both medicalized and non-medicalized models of safer supply are part of the continuum of harm reduction. As non-medicalized models are not authorized in our current legal framework, much of this work falls on health care providers. They must weigh the lifesaving benefits of safer supply against the potential professional inconveniences, like audits.

As people who use drugs, we are the safer supply experts—not physicians

15 February 2022 - Harm Reduction International (HRI), the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD) and the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), urge the Singaporean Government to immediately halt the impending execution of Roslan bin Bakar and another person on death row for a drug offence, which is scheduled for this Wednesday 16 February 2022; and call on UN entities including OHCHR and UNODC, the European Union and its Member States, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights and all relevant stakeholders to take urgent action.

Mr bin Bakar was arrested in 2008 in connection to a drug transaction, and sentenced to the mandatory death penalty in 2010 for trafficking 96.07 grams of diamorphine and 76.37 grams of methamphetamine. Mr bin Bakar’s conviction was largely based on the testimonies of others, who reportedly admitted to agreeing to frame him as the mastermind of the operation. Mr bin Bakar, a Singaporean,

 reportedly experiences mental health issues

, and fair trial concerns were raised in appeals to his death sentence, all dismissed by the Court. Similar concerns were raised in the case of another individual whose execution was announced, also for 16 February and also for drug trafficking. Singaporean authorities scheduled Mr bin Bakar’s execution while aware that his lawyer is currently on medical leave and not practising law, making any legal action against the pending execution particularly challenging.

Authorities in Singapore have planned and notified these executions whilst waiting for a new hearing on the case of Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, the 32-year-old Malaysian whose hanging was halted at the last minute in November 2021. The decision to execute Mr Dharmalingam, who was also convicted of drug trafficking, and also experiences significant mental health issues, was condemned by a broad range of actors, including disability rights activists, networks of people who use drugs, the Malaysian Prime Minister and King, Delegations, members of the legal and medical profession, and UN human rights experts.

The use of the death penalty for drug offences is a clear violation of international human rights as well as drug control standards, as reiterated by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Council, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). Contrary to the Government’s claims, there is no proof that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect on drug use or trafficking.. Rather, the use of death penalty, and punitive drug policies more generally, work to deepen stigma and discrimination against people who use drugs while entrenching cycles of poverty and marginalisation. Research by Harm Reduction International shows Singapore is one of few countries that regularly sentence individuals to death for drug offences, at a time when more and more countries are moving away from using the death penalty as a tool of drug control,

In addition, the imposition of capital punishment against persons with mental or intellectual disabilities is prohibited by international law and a violation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Singapore ratified.

We call on the Government of Singapore to halt all scheduled executions and to commute death sentences, as a first step towards abolition of the death penalty, and towards drug policies which centre health and human rights.

Joint statement urging Singapore to halt the impending execution of Roslan bin Bakar and another person for a drug offence

The Committee on NGOs plays a key role in facilitating partnerships, "to ensure an effective response to our common challenges." It is essential that the members of the Committee are committed to fulfilling such a task fairly and judiciously.

To: Member States of the UN General Assembly

Cc: President of ECOSOC, President of the General Assembly, President of the Human Rights Council, UN Secretary General.

We are five months out from elections to the ECOSOC Committee on Non-Governmental Organisations for the 2023-2026 term. These are key elections for all those who value the expertise of civil society and seek to ensure the UN can benefit from it.

The Secretary General has called civil society the UN’s ‘indispensable partners”. Member States recently committed to boosting partnerships ‘to ensure an effective response to our common challenges’. In recommending approval of the participation of non-governmental organisations in a range of UN bodies and processes, the Committee on NGOs plays a key role in facilitating such partnerships. It is essential that the members of the Committee are committed to fulfilling such a task fairly and judiciously.

With this in mind, we would like to request the following, that:

1/ States with an interest in facilitating and safeguarding civil society access to and participation in UN processes stand for election to the Committee.

2/ Candidates make public the reasons for their candidacy and their commitment to fulfil their responsibilities as members of the Committee, as per ECOSOC Resolution 1996/31.

3/ All regions put up competitive slates, as the Asia-Pacific and GRULAC regions did in the last elections for the Committee in 2018. Competitive elections are important to create buy-in to the process and encourage states to be accountable for their commitments.

4/ All regions make public candidacies at least two months before the elections to allow for proper consideration of candidates.

5/ All ECOSOC members vote (and be encouraged to vote) only for candidates with positive track records in regard to civil society access and participation. Candidates could be assessed in regard to indicators such as support for relevant UN resolutions, such as those on civil society space and human rights defenders; on responses to cases of intimidation and reprisals; and on national level initiatives to safeguard civic space, press freedom – online as offline – and the right to defend human rights.

6/ ECOSOC members should consider introducing term limits for membership of the Committee on NGOs, among other reforms encouraging openness and accountability. As with other UN bodies, states should be required to leave the Committee for a specific interval of time after serving for a maximum agreed period. Term limits would encourage greater diversity in membership over time and encourage states to step up as candidates.

The Committee on NGOs is entrusted with the task of facilitating civil society access so that the expertise and experience of civil society partners can enrich and inform UN debates. It needs members that are committed to fulfilling the Committee’s mandate in a fair, transparent, non-discriminatory, expeditious and apolitical manner. It falls on all member states – as potential candidates and / or electors – to ensure that the Committee membership is fit for purpose.

Please elect to stand up for civil society!

(List of signatories, including IDPC, on the IFEX website)

Open letter to members of the UN’s General Assembly regarding the ECOSOC Committee on NGOs

An academic by training, Gideon Lasco does not limit his career to producing journal articles and book chapters. Beyond academia, he is a published author, hosts a weekly opinion column, is a trustee of Centre for Sustainability and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

Most recently, Lasco published his most recent book: “

”. Featuring 18 chapters of research, poetry, photographs and other recorded media, the book is a fantastic exploration into the role that drugs play within the nation.

Beyond being a critically incisive text, it has been published in a nation led by one of the most vocal opponents of a more tolerant approach to drugs and the people who use them. Rodrigo Duterte, the infamous president of the Philippines, has incentivised police killings of people who use drugs, and openly claimed responsibility for the murder of over 12,000 mostly urban poor Filipinos for their direct or indirect involvement with drugs. With presidential elections in May, Lasco’s 

is a scathing indictment of Duterte’s authoritarian regime, and takes the first steps towards rethinking the future of drug policy in the Philippines and beyond.

Currently based in Mexico City, TalkingDrugs spoke with Lasco over Zoom in early 2022 on drugs, class, colonialism, COVID, and an imagined future for the Philippines. The conversation has been edited for brevity.

'Duterte has degraded the discourse so much it's become a matter of whether to kill or not' - Gideon Lasco on drugs and the Philippines

In one of the most exasperating controversies of Biden’s presidency, elected Republicans and conservative talking heads whipped up a social media firestorm this week, accusing the White House of wanting to distribute the pipes nationwide. This all stemmed from a grant program launched last year by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Biden’s multi-trillion dollar coronavirus rescue package, passed in March 2021, contained an historic-but-small $30 million in grant funding to public and private organizations to support harm reduction services, like the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone and sterile syringes. And “safe smoking kits/supplies” were listed as another eligible category. But under right-wing pressure, Biden’s administration rapidly went on the defensive. His press secretary, HHS secretary and “drug czar” all went on the record on February 9, to clarify that “no federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits.” It reads as a textbook example of political cowardice.

US: Outrage at Biden administration caving to 'crack pipes' pressure

Until recently, Ron M would take illicit drugs in what space he could find: public restrooms, subway alleyways or just in the street. He often used alone; the possibility of a fatal overdose was high.

That’s why the East Harlem overdose prevention center has been such a blessing to him.

“It’s saved many lives since it’s been here,” said Ron, 31. “It keeps us from having to get high in bad places.”

Ron, whose last name has been withheld for privacy, has used heroin for years, but the New York opening of the nation’s first two sanctioned overdose prevention centers (OPCs) on 30 November has significantly increased his chances of survival.

The center provides those who use substances with a safe and clean space to do so, and with help available in case of an overdose, which has already helped avert many deaths.

“This place is a blessing – and if there were more, it would save so many lives,” Ron said.

‘It’s saved many lives’: first US overdose prevention centers give safe spaces to people in crisis

As COVID-19 continues to rage, another health crisis persists — one that is decades long. In the first year of the pandemic, the United States hit the devastating milestone of 100,000 overdose deaths, a nearly 28.5 percent surge from the record numbers we saw the previous year. Now, fentanyl is the leading cause of death in Americans ages 18-45. The reaction from many of our leaders has been to call for more arrests and criminalization, but this response is rooted in fear, not science. We have spent the last 50 years trying to treat a public health issue with a criminalization response, yet people are dying of overdose at record rates. This response is clearly not working.

The evidence is clear: Criminalization worsens public health outcomes. From making the drug supply more dangerous, to deterring people from getting help out of fear and stigma, to denial of economic opportunities and supports for people with drug arrests, the associated consequences have been dire. Besides, sending someone to jail or prison doesn’t keep people from using drugs. In fact, deaths due to drug and alcohol intoxication have increased more than 600 percent in state prisons between 2001 and 2018.

It’s time for a new approach. Oregon has taken the bold step that we should adopt across the U.S.: Decriminalize drug possession and increase access to health services. In the year since the state decriminalized drugs through a ballot initiative (Measure 110), and with only about 10 percent of the allotted funding distributed to 70 community-based organizations so far, Oregon has already been able to provide peer support, harm reduction, evidence-based treatment, housing and job assistance to more than 16,000 people.

Drug decriminalisation is working in Oregon. Other states should follow.

Rights groups and politicians in Colombia have welcomed a decision by the country’s Constitutional Court, which ruled this week that the government failed to consult local communities over its plan to restart aerial fumigation of coca crops.

In a decision on Wednesday, the court said the government of President Ivan Duque could not at this stage move forward with plans to carry out aerial spraying with herbicide glyphosate. It said Bogota must first adequately consult with communities that could be affected.

Earlier that year, the World Health Organization (WHO) linked glyphosate – marketed under the brand name RoundUp in the US – as a probable human carcinogenic.

Colombia can’t resume coca aerial spraying for now, court rules

More than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses between July 2020 and June 2021, according to provisional figures released by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on January 12th. That is the highest number on record. Some 75% of these deaths were caused by opioids, a class of drug that includes heroin and fentanyl, a prescription pain-killer that has flooded the black market. In an attempt to prevent more deaths, New York has become the first American city to open officially authorised safe-injection sites where people can inject drugs under the supervision of trained staff. On November 30th two clinics opened their doors. They provide access to clean needles and disposal facilities, and staff can administer naloxone, a drug that rapidly reverses the effect of an opioid overdose. Since they opened naloxone has reversed at least seven overdoses—each time potentially saving a life. Health officials have since proposed to introduce vending machines around the city that dispense the drug. What is naloxone, and how does it work?

Opioids work by attaching to receptors in nerve cells, altering the cells’ activity. They block pain signals sent from the brain and can cause feelings of euphoria, making them highly addictive if taken regularly. Opioids also relax a person’s breathing. During an overdose a person’s breathing can stop entirely, killing them. Naloxone, which is administered as an injection or nasal spray, has a stronger binding affinity with opioid receptors than the opioid itself, and so displaces the drug. The medicine causes no reaction, allowing the nerve cell to revert to its normal state. But dislodging the opioid can cause users to feel painful withdrawal symptoms if they are addicted. In the case of overdoses, naloxone allows users to breathe again, hopefully in time to save their lives.

What is naloxone, and how does it reverse opioid overdoses?

Nearly 92,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2020, marking a 30% increase from the year before, a 75% increase over five years and by far the highest annual total on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Preliminary figures suggest that the 2021 death toll from overdoses may be even higher.

While overdose death rates have increased in every major demographic group in recent years, no group has seen a bigger increase than Black men. As a result, Black men have overtaken White men and are now on par with American Indian or Alaska Native men as the demographic groups most likely to die from overdoses.

There were 54.1 fatal drug overdoses for every 100,000 Black men in the United States in 2020. That was similar to the rate among American Indian or Alaska Native men (52.1 deaths per 100,000 people) and well above the rates among White men (44.2 per 100,000) and Hispanic men (27.3 per 100,000). The overdose death rate among men was lowest among Asians or Pacific Islanders (8.5 per 100,000).

Recent surge in U.S. drug overdose deaths has hit Black men the hardest

In a progressive move, the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine plans to have local cannabis strains registered as a national heritage item before seeking Unesco recognition.

The department has gathered over 30 local strains and recorded the DNA of each one to make a database of the strains grown here with the information to be used to register geographical indications.

The move, if successful, will help de-stigmatise the plant, a traditional herb, away from being an illicit drug under the original anti-narcotics law.

Mr Anutin has also set up a panel comprising experts from various fields to find ways to put the policy into practice. Cannabis legalisation was a flagship policy of Mr Anutin's Bhumjaithai Party during the 2019 election campaign which will allow each household to grow a maximum of six cannabis plants.

Thailand: rethinking cannabis

By the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Médecins du Monde and the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD)

Unpack the harm reduction approach, its connection to public health and human rights, and how it works at addressing drug use.

Over the past decades, drug use is increasingly recognised through a public health and human rights perspective. The evidence-based harm reduction approach is based on years of global experiences and evaluated by extensive research. This three-week course provides great insight into why it is such an effective solution.

See how human rights and public health relate to harm reduction

Public health measures focus on improving the overall health of a population, changing regulations, and increasing government support.

You’ll learn how harm reduction is a vital part of this approach, using an effective intervention model that saves lives, as well as protecting dignity, individual agency and other human rights.

Understand the importance of support instead of punishment

At its core, the harm reduction approach is based on empowering people to better protect themselves from potential risks associated with drug use.

It acknowledges the role of people who use drugs as a vital component of a public health response and promotes the idea that government and community support decrease potential risk factors.

On this course, you’ll see real best-practice examples and explore how you can advocate scaling up harm reduction to make a real impact on individual and public health issues, as well as protecting the human rights of people who use drugs.

Study harm reduction at a recognised leader in global and public health

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is strongly connected to the peer-reviewed International Journal of Drug Policy, with much of the research in this field coming from the LSHTM, while also being a world-renowned leader in global and public health.

You can trust their expert guidance as you learn more about using harm reduction to address drug use.

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